Chicago Bulls: Ranking all five of their potential starters

3. Wendell Carter Jr. (C)

This site has covered Wendell Carter Jr.’s, ahem, “progress” as a floor spacer as recently as last week, and if you don’t want to click the link for the details, the Spark Notes version goes like this: defenses are still sagging off of him to clog the paint and Carter’s shooting has given them little reason to abandon this strategy.

Carter holds obvious value as a rim roller (87th percentile in per game rim gravity) and as a rim protector (opponents shot just 56.6 percent against him from inside 6 feet; 62.3 percent was the league average). So if there’s enough spacing, his threat to finish near the cup will open things up for the other perimeter shooters.

But the Bulls want to also use him in pick-and-pop actions — likely along with some handoffs that essentially serve the same purpose — and those will only work if teams respect his shooting enough to clear paths for the dribble penetrators (and make opponents pay for ignoring him behind the arc).

If everything goes right for Carter this year (including health), he could become the Bulls’ best player. But there are enough concerns on both sides of the floor (his slight-for-his-position frame makes him prone to getting moved off of his spots in the post) to keep him slotted here.